"Good idea!" exclaimed the inventor. "You two boys work it!"
At last the eagles, alarmed by the number killed, and frightened by the noise of the guns and the shots, halted in their rushes at the airship. Some of the wounded ones wheeled away. Then others followed until, finally, the whole colony of birds sailed off.
"There they go!" cried Jack.
"Yes, but I fear too late to do us any good," spoke the professor. "The airship is slowly settling."
"Can't it be fixed?" asked Mark.
"I suppose I could let it down to earth and patch up the hole, but I fear to do so," answered the inventor. "The Monarch is not under control, and if I attempt to make a landing I may smash her all to pieces. She may settle down until within a few hundred feet of the earth and then plunge like a meteor. We would all be killed then."
"Is there no other way?" asked Jack.
"None, unless we could patch up the hole in the gas bag while we are up aloft. I can hold the ship there for a while yet. Another reason why I do not want to land is that we are over a thickly settled portion of the state now, and if I go down to earth we will be surrounded by a curious crowd that will delay us."
"Is that netting strong?" asked Mark, suddenly, pointing to the cords that confined the gas bag.
"Two strands would support a man's weight," said Mr. Henderson.